


The Boy and The Spirit

by Im_only_mildly_ashamed



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: AUGH, Gon gets super freaky and weird for like a paragraph, HxHBB17, I don't..., I forgot how weird this gets, IT - Freeform, JUST, Killua tries to kill Gon, M/M, OccasionalAssassin!Killua, Sort of Friends, Sort of enemies to friends, Spirit AU, Spirit!Gon, The end doesnt' really make sense, chapters are of fairly inconsistant size, it doesn't work, written for the Big Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-10-23 09:29:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 39
Words: 7,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10716714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_only_mildly_ashamed/pseuds/Im_only_mildly_ashamed
Summary: Written for the hunterxhunter Big Bang:Killua has taken it upon himself to murder a forest spirit.The forest spirit rather likes his would-be assassin, and poses a deal to him.One attempted murder for each question the boy will answer.Killua agrees.(Also, don't be too intimidated by chapter number, they're quite short.)





	1. Prolouge

It was a spirit.

Gon was sure of it.

The soundless way it walked, the graceful paleness in its every moment, the glow radiating around it; the whole thing was obviously supernatural.

So why didn’t it perform the proper rites?

Anything smarter than a human knew to pay respects when entering a spirit’s territory.

It looked like a moon spirit, but the Pale Empress’ Gentlemen knew to say hello.

Gon sighed, rubbing his boiling temples.

He slowly relaxed on the branch of his favorite tree, and hung by his legs with his back to the stranger.

The moonlight was comforting and cold.

He looked up at the moon and she down at him.

Gon sighed then fell from the tree, collapsing into a heap on his grass and leaves.

The creatures of the forest that cared to watch gave polite giggles.

Gon rolled over on the grass, crunching leaves underneath him and carefully avoiding the grasshopper currently trying to find love next his shoulder.

Gon stood up, stepping around the two grasshoppers who’d already found love.

Gon curled forward, touching his toes and putting his nose onto his knees, then backwards, meeting his fingers and heels.

He might as well get around to meeting this impolite spirit.


	2. 1

Killua was on the roof.

As he was most nights.

Between his banishment from interfering with his father's business, and his disdain for his own quarters, he often ended up on the roof, shifting between slanted tiles, and trying to listen in on private conversations.

This particular conversation was anything but private.

“I will not, under any circumstances, nor for any amount of money, kill any kind of-”

Killua’s father’s voice dropped from shouting to whispering and Killua couldn’t hear what he’d said.

It returned at a more level speaking voice just afterwards.

“Do I make myself abundantly clear?”

There was a mumble that sounded like yes.

“Now, you are to leave through the front door and tell no one you came to see me. If you ever darken my doorstep again, I will, with no exaggeration or attempt at humor, remove your spine through your mouth. Do you understand?”

There were sounds of minor panic and affirmation.

“Then go.”

There was a hurried clatter on the floor, then down the steps.

The front door of Killua’s home was opened, and the warm light radiating from his house saw the weasley man back out into the cold.

Killua looked over to the tree that’d seen him comfortably to the ground so many times before and crouched to ready a jump.

“Killua.”

He looked down and over to see his father looking out the window, a foot or two below.

“Do not go after him.”

When Killua’s monstrously sized father turned up to him, and Killua expected to see furious eyes pinning him down, instead he saw his father’s face worn into worry.

It was a look he’d never seen before.

Killua had never been more curious in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...  
> It...  
> Fuck


	3. 2

Apparently, the human weasel wanted Killua’s father to kill a spirit.

Killua had never mingled with spirits and was not entirely convinced they existed.

Nevertheless, when you make it your sworn duty to succeed at every job your father turned away, (even if that job was getting Ms. Brandon a cup of sugar) then one doesn’t just stop at the door to the supernatural.

Besides, Ms. Brandon was probably worse.

Despite Killua’s doubts that spirits were an actual phenomenon, he did come prepared.

Though if spirits were as dangerous as his father’s reaction had led him to believe then a spear would still do very little.

Even still, he strutted off to the forest a fair distance from home and twirled it like a toy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short  
> double nugget


	4. 3

This was not how things were supposed to go.

Killua was a few hours past panicking.

He’d left a stone’s throw from dawn and now it was nearing nightfall.

At first, the forest had seemed a like small, lightly wooded area but now…

Now it felt like he’d been walking in circles for hours.

Everything looked the same but with bigger trees.

It was… unsettling.

On top of that…

It felt like someone was watching him.

Aways.

Killua walked faster.


	5. 4

Killua breathed in, then out.

He was lost.

Nothing could be done about that.

He’d lost count of the number times he’d turned around, and no matter which way he went, the trees only seemed to get bigger.

He couldn’t get his arms all the way around one now.

He wasn’t quite ready to claim spirit involvement, but something was very, very odd about this forest.

So as Killua continued his mostly aimless walking, he started stowing larger branches under his arm.

It was getting dark and cold, so when Killua had found an ideal clearing for cowering, he cleared the browning leaves and piled his collected twigs and logs into a loose structure.

Afterwards, he set about lighting it the old fashion way.

That is to say, by rubbing a pair of sticks together.

There was a little more intelligence involved; strategic placement of leaves, carving a notch into a larger stick, clever use of friction, and so on, but the end result was still the same.

A tiny ember and cramping hands.

Despite man’s greatest invention requiring his absolute attention and occasional breath to survive, Killua found his mind wandering.

It still felt like someone was watching from just beyond the treeline.

Maybe his father was right.

Maybe he should be afraid.

Killua shivered and blew harder into his smoking bundle of twigs and leaves.


	6. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just read it

Killua had a proper fire now, though it was too small and sad to be called much more.

And though the light level had improved, Killua still felt he was being watched.

Every now and again, he would scuttle around the fire to face it from another direction, just so his back was never in the same place too long.

He always took his spear with him.

His fears were cemented when rustling came from the trees behind him.

Killua stood and turned to face the darkness, spear pointed outward.

He took a hesitant step forward, then another.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Killua turned around to trace the voice and found a boy sitting on the other side of his fire.

He was idly poking a stick into the crackling orange lightsource.

He raised a hand and waved.

“Hi!”

His voice cracked slightly.

At this point in his life, KIllua had killed half a dozen people.

He screamed and dropped his weapon in favor of wrapping his hands around his skull.

 

When his scream was completed, and he was left awkwardly crouched and slightly soiled, he heard the boy speak again.

Technically, he heard the boy giggle, and then speak.

“What was that about?”

Killua was no longer terrified, now simply indignant.

He stamped his foot to signify as much before shouting.

“You scared the crap out of me!”

The boy giggled again.

“Sorry?”

Killua sputtered and his mind treaded on that for a little.

“You should be!” he responded finally.

The boy fell backwards and cackled.

His laugh sounded like bells on the wind.

“You’re really weird!” He said finally, tone somehow inoffensive as he curled back up.

Killua was still blushing from his first indignity, and this strange person’s brazen approach to conversation was not helping.

“You’re weird!”

Killua pointed to the other figure, who stood up and pouted to respond.

“No I’m not!”

He said, before leaning forward and sticking out his tongue.

“Yeah you are! What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

Killua was still pointing, and still flustered.

The boy he was pointing to stepped over Killua’s tiny fire and leaned into his face.

“It’s my forest!” He said, inflection identical to a child claiming rules superiority in their treehouse.

Were Killua not exhausted, embarrassed, and a handful of inches from a boy who looked to be about the same age, he might have grasped the larger implications of this statement.

Unfortunately for him, the pace of this conversation was not easily broken and he was all of the above at once.

“Well it’s my fire!” he finally shouted back.

The boy opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it.

He rested his chin on his hand and thought.

“I guess you’re right…” He said finally.

Killua crossed his arms and nodded sagely.

“Of course I am. So what are you doing here?”

The boy smiled.

Killua’s heart responded with what was best described as a somersault.

“I’m here to meet you!”

If KIllua’s heart had been doing a somersault, then his heart followed this act with a quadruple backflip over shark infested waters.

“Uh… wh- uh... what uh…” He stammered brilliantly.

“What’s your name?”

Though that was not the question Killua had meant to ask, but he was privately very proud of himself for forming actual words.

That smile came back.

Somersaults of the heart ensue.

“I’m Gon!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meplh
> 
> This chapter got wonderful art by freddy-draws-and-scribbles on tumblr!  
> You can find it here:  
> https://freddy-draws-and-scribbles.tumblr.com/post/161203044006/my-art-for-the-hxhbb17-based-on


	7. 6

Gon, as Killua discovered, couldn’t sit still for very long.

They were sitting on opposite sides of Killua’s pile of burning wood, and Gon stood up.

He started walking in circles around the fire and Killua.

After the third or fourth time Gon disappeared from his periphery, Killua hopped up himself.

“God, stop, aren’t you tired?”

Gon stared at him and tilted his head to the side.

He look legitimately puzzled.

“No?”

Killua didn’t quite know how to respond to that.

He eventually pieced something together.

“It’s nearly dawn and you haven’t slept at all, how?”

Killua couldn’t quite trace the transition, but his face changed from plain curiosity to something unreadable.

“You aren’t a moon spirit are you?”

He asked it a legitimate question, but Gon’s tone was spring loaded, like at the wrong response he would pop.

Killua swallowed.

“No?”

Gon straightened.

“At the first break of dawn, follow the sun.”

Killua blinked

“What?”

Gon seemed a different person, impatient and cold.

He sighed.

“The sun. If you follow it, it’ll lead you out of the forest. My forest doesn’t follow the same rules as most. Just follow the sun, no matter where it is in the sky.”

He turned away from Killua at that.

He stopped and turned back, as if to say something, then shook himself and walked into the darkness.

Killua took a step after him, but the eyes watching him were still there.

They didn’t feel friendly.

He heard the rustle of leaves behind him and turned around.

The rustle dissipated.

Killua didn’t close his eyes for more than a blink the rest of the night.


	8. Killua's dream

A mother.

He’s never met her.

But she smiled on him.

From that roof.

(With the slanted tiles)

And from the forest.

(With the magic boy)

Her smile wavers a little with the kiss.

The kiss like a warm breeze.

But she smiles past the tears.

Killua wakes with a start.

He doesn’t remember falling asleep.

He can still feel the ghost of a kiss on his lips.


	9. 7

The sun rose as it always did.

Slowly.

Very

Very 

Slowly.

But when Killua was confident enough in the tiny sliver of blinding light on the edge of the horizon, he began to follow it.

Every couple hundred feet, he would wrap his arms around a tree.

He wasn’t convinced he was making progress.

He wasn’t sure Gon was telling the truth.

But… could he touch his middle fingers together around a tree before?

One way or the other, it was getting close to mid-morning and he wasn’t making enough progress.

He picked up the pace.

The weight of eyes on his back was not comfortable.

He busied his brain with counting his steps.

Every six hundred steps he “measured” a tree.

After he found he could grab his wrists as they were wrapped around a tree, he decided Gon was telling the truth and settled to just walk as quickly as he could maintain after the sun.

Midday came.

Killua stared at the sun.

Well, he squinted at where the sun was near.

It was, as far as he could tell, in the middle of the sky.

There wasn’t anywhere to go.

He crossed his legs and sat down.

He could close his eyes, just for a second.

He wouldn’t fall asleep.

He wouldn’t.


	10. 8

“What are you doing?”

Killua jumped nearly a mile into the air out of sleep.

“AH! God!” Killua shouted, limbs thrown up in panic.

Gon tilted his head to the side.

“Jesus, stop sneaking up on me!” Killua continued shouting.

Gon crossed his arms.

“You don’t make it hard.” He said simply.

Killua scrambled to stand.

“Well it isn’t exactly fair! You being…”

Killua got quiet.

“You know…”

Gon smiled.

“A spirit?”

Killua swallowed.

So he was right.

Damn.

Killua reached down, casual as anything, and picked up his spear.

“I wouldn’t advise that.” Said Gon, casual as anything.

Killua smiled, friendly as anything.

“I’m sorry, I need this.”


	11. 9

Gon was impressed with his speed.

Killua had managed to even lift the weapon before Gon stopped him.

Gon furrowed his brow.

“Where did you get this?”

Killua seemed too busy struggling to move his weapon to respond.

“It hurts” Gon noted the sensation slowly bleeding up his arm.

It was like his arm had fallen asleep, but it hurt more.

A lot more.

He noticed his finger tips turning blue.

Killua tried to wrench the spear from Gon, but he held fast.

Even as the blueness spread down his fingers.

KIllua tried to twist the point up at Gon, and was met with minimal success.

Even as his palm started to blue.

Killua knew from experience that you shouldn’t talk to the people you’re trying to kill, but…

“Why are you still holding on?”

Gon opened his mouth.

Instead of forming words, he puked up a small bowl’s worth of green-ish brown sickness.

Killua cackled.


	12. 10

The human was laughing at him.

The human had just tried to kill him and Gon had stopped him.

So what if he threw up a little bit?

And held onto the spear so long his still couldn’t feel his arm?

And was now just sort of standing there staring at this cackling, spasming human laying on the ground?

So what? He still beat him! He was still a threat!

 

Eventually, the human stopped laughing at him.

He was laying there on his back with his hands on his stomach.

He took a contented breath in.

He giggled again.

“Where did you get this?”

Gon was well aware this wasn’t the ideal time or place.

But he really wanted to know.

Killua shrugged to respond.

“What’s your name?”

Gon only asked because he had the impulse to, but he couldn’t tell you where it came from.

Killua sat up to look at him.

He lay back down.

Gon whined a little.

“Please?”

Killua sat completely up.

“Why do you want to know?”

Gon twiddled his fingers.

“I-I don’t really know.”

Killua collapsed back down.

“I tried to kill you. I’m going to do it again.” He said from the ground.

Gon continued his fidgeting.

“Like I said, I don’t really know why.”

The human grabbed his face and groaned.

“Agh you’re so weird!”

Under different circumstances, Gon would’ve taken great offense at that, but he was too much in his own head.

“Y-yeah, I guess..”

The human finally stood up, grabbing his spear from the ground.

“My name is Killua.”


	13. 11

Killua was as quick as he was careful.

His quick, conservative jabs kept Gon folding and bending to avoid being wounded.

He’d learned his lesson on grabbing the weapon.

After a few tense minutes, Gon simply punched him.

In the heartbeat where Killua’s body went completely lax, Gon was worried he’d killed the boy.

Then his head snapped forward, followed shortly by the point of his spear.

Gon actually had to leap backwards to avoid being impaled.

“Where did you learn this stuff?” He asked as he stood up straight.

Killua leaped after him, unleashing another flurry of desperate jabs.

Gon bent and folded to avoid the point of these attacks, still keeping off the offensive.

Killua leaped backwards after his attempt proved unsuccessful.

Gon was just sort of… standing there.

Whereas KIllua was panting, flustered, and more than a little embarrassed.

And angry.

Very, very angry.

“Stop screwing around! Take this seriously.”

Gon just gave a lopsided smile.

This only blackened Killua’s anger.

He charged, spear tip forward at Gon.

His defeat was nearly instantaneous.

Gon grabbed his spear just before the tip, (Ignoring sudden stabbing pain), swiftly kicked Killua in the face and wrenched the spear from him.

As always, he was impressed with Killua’s reaction time.

The boy was quick to recover, but Gon still had plenty of time to try and snap the weapon over his knee.

He made two major mistakes.


	14. 12

One was not thinking about what trying to break a weapon that could actually hurt him would do, and two was not thinking about how Killua would react

The explosion that sent him hurtling through the forest and the subsequent tackling by a teenaged murderer both pointed to this error.

Killua began to lay into Gon, slamming his fists into one side of his face and then the other, bruising both of his hands heavily.

“MY - GOD - DAMN - SISTER!” Killua screamed in between punches.

After a particularly audible crack singled that Killua had broken a finger, he simply winced and switched to only using his dominant hand.

Gon kicked up and Killua flew off, landing gracelessly next to Gon.

Both stood up and Killua took a stout stick with him as he ran at Gon.

Again Killua’s speed was impressive for a human, but Gon blocked his swing with his forearm.

He gritted his teeth at the contact, but ripped the weapon away from Killua in the next breath.

Killua, in line with his sudden savagery, settled for trying to kill Gon with his bare hands.

He leaped at him, flurry of scratches, bites, punches and kicks ready to explode.

This explosion was canceled by Gon’s swift kick to his face.

As Killua fell backwards, he saw stars and universes, sun and moons, planets and asteroids.

He contacted with the ground in the form a painful thud.

Then blackness.


	15. Killua's second dream

A kindly mother whispers his name.

He’s fallen asleep in her lap.

He’s not sure how that happened.

She leans down and whispers his name again. 

Then a final command.

“Wake up.”


	16. 13

Killua slowly opened his eyes.

It was nearing sunset.

He was kind of itchy.

There were leaves digging into his back.

And he couldn’t move.

His muscles functioned, but they were restrained.

He seem to be tied into a somewhat awkward position.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to wake up.”

Gon was just on the edge of his his view.

“Mmm” was Killua’s only response. 

“What did you tie my down with?” He asked after a short pause.

Whatever it was, it didn’t feel like rope.

“Roots.” Gon said.

“Mmm” hummed Killua again.

“What now?” he said after a moment.

Gon was silent.

“I don’t know.” he said finally. “I could kill you.” 

Killua shook his head.

“Not an option.”

Gon snorted.

“What?” he continued incredulously.

Killua would’ve shrugged if he could.

“That’s not happening. I have people I need to get back to.”

Gon nodded.

“Your sister?” He asked.

Killua at him suspiciously.

“You were screaming something about her when you punching me in the face.

Killua half-smiled, fondly and far away.

“Yeah, my sister.”’

Gon prodded his finger together nervously.

“W-what is she like?”

Killua tried to spit on Gon.

He missed.

Gon pouted and crossed his arms.

Not that Killua could see it very well.

“You don’t have to be so mean!”

Killua kept his lips shut tight.

Gon groaned in frustration and dragged his hands down his face before disappearing from view.

Killua heard the sound of hard contact (Wood on skull).

A few moments later, Gon was hovering over him with a big eager smile on his face.

“What if I made you a deal?”

Killua raised an eyebrow.

Gon stared amazed and spoke quickly under his breath “woah, how did he do that…”

He shook himself.

“Well, it seems like you really want to kill me. So, how about this: Every time you answer one of my questions, you can try to.”

As he spoke, Gon had pressed Killua’s weapon in his hand.

Gon paused for effect and to read Killua’s reaction.

There wasn’t one he could see.

“I won’t fight back, no tricks, nothing.”

Killua looked essentially frozen.

“Killua?”


	17. 14

Killua blinked.

The spear was fine.

He could feel it.

It wasn’t even damaged.

“What kind of questions?” He croaked.

God, was he going to cry?

It was obvious from the face Gon made he hadn’t thought about that at all.

“Well… I don’t know… just questions about your life? Who you are? Things like that.”

Killua swallowed and blinked back the starting of tears.

He cleared his throat.

“Why?”

Gon mumbled something, then spoke up.

“I don’t know… it… I guess it’s something I want to know.”

“Mmm.”

Killua pretended to consider it.

“Alright, shoot.”


	18. 15

To Killua’s minimal surprise, Gon was overexcited.

“Where are you from? What is your sister like? Is she where you got the spear? Do you have other siblings? What’s it like to have parents? Do you like the rain? Is-”

“Woah!” Killua had managed to get a single word in edgewise. “Slow down and let me up first.”

Gon’s face jumped as he realised his mistake.

“Ah! I’m sorry, here let me help you up-”

Gon grabbed the roots wrapped around Killua’s arms first, he tore them from the ground.

He did the same on the roots restraining his legs and head.

“There you go!” Said the slightly shorter humanoid as he helped Killua to sit up.

Killua was beginning to grasp how completely out of his depth he was.

Gon had just torn up roots the size of his arms like they were twigs stuck in mud.

Killua swallowed.

Gon was sitting, feet together, bobbing back and forth few feet from him.

He was bouncing his finger on his chin, considering his first question carefully.

Killua clenched his weapon in his hands.

One of his fingers was still broken.

“What is your favorite plant?” Asked Gon finally, head cocked to the side.

Killua raised an eyebrow again.

Gon again asked how he did that from under his breath.

“Dandelions. And I learned to raise one eyebrow with practice.” Killua responded.

He took to two quick jabs at Gon’s head.

The spirit craned his neck left, then right, dodging both with barely any movement.

Gon smacked a palm to his forehead.

“I should’ve been more careful with my questions!”

Killua just scowled to respond.

“Why dandelions?” asked Gon, wiggling his eyebrows, attempting to “practice”.

Killua swallowed.

“Fond memories.” He said vaguely.

Gon paused again, finger on his chin, eyebrows waggling.

He looked like an idiot.

Killua next attempt at murder was started and stopped in a split second lean of Gon’s.

Killua suspected it’d be a long day.


	19. 16

Killua was correct.

Gon kept up his interrogation for the entirety of the day, asking him about a hundred different things.

But… Killua started to get worried.

Not that he couldn’t kill Gon, (He’d already accepted that he’d need to come up with a clever trick for that), but that he was… starting to enjoy their conversations?

Gon was… easy to talk to.

Killua started saving his attempts.

Saving… a lot of his attempts.

The sun was half missing from the sky and Killua’s eyes started to droop.

“A-are you ok?” Gon stuttered, considering if it was worth the question.

Killua blinked with the weight of stone on his eyes and shook his head.

“Yeah, I’m just…”

He yawned.

“You know.” He finished sleepily.

Gon cocked his head to the side.

“You seem… off. And you have two-hundred and forty-six attempts left.”

Killua was resting his head on his hand, eyes closed.

“Two-hundred and forty-two” He said without opening his eyes.

Gon was staring at him in wide-eyed wonder.

“How did you…?”

Killua still didn’t open his eyes.

“Basic math. Two-hundred forty-three.”

Gon stood up and pouted.

“That’s not fair Killua!”

Killua didn’t respond.

Gon pouted harder.

“Hey! Killua!”

He shook other other teen.

Killua snapped awake, swinging his spear wildly towards Gon.

Gon leaped back.

The cut on his face bled.

Killua looked so afraid.


	20. 17

Fuck.

“Gon I’m sorry, I didn’-” he stopped himself.

But he had meant to.

Just… he didn’t want to.

And he certainly didn’t expect it to work.

The shorter humanoid touched his bleeding wound gently.

“Don’t… Be.” He said slowly.

“It’s what you’re here for…. Right?”

Gon’s voice was inflectionless and slow.

They stared at each other for a moment.

“Come on. I have a safe place you can sleep the night.” Gon said, already walking away.

Killua stumbled to stand.

“Wait, Gon.”

He stopped.

“Are you ok?” asked Killua.

Gon turned around.

“If I answer your question, do I get to try to kill you?”

The air vanished from Killua’s lungs and Gon was walking again.


	21. 18

Why did he say that?

He hadn’t meant to.

His whole body was burning and his cheek was still bleeding and his head was a mess and his heart was beating way, way too fast and he felt like throwing up, but…

That didn’t make Killua a friend.

As much as he wanted it, Killua still wanted to hurt him and he was abusing this for Killua’s knowledge.

There was nothing more.

He just needed… a little more information.

He only need one more look at the outside world.

One more look at Killua.

That’s all.

“Come on” Gon said over his shoulder.

“We’re nearing the heart of the forest.”

Killua took a breath in, as though to ask something, but stopped short.

“Ok.” He said instead.

Gon swallowed.

Why was this so hard?


	22. 19

The heart of the forest was a tree.

This was unsurprising.

What was surprising was how unbelievably massive it was.

It was an object the shattered Killua’s perception of how large something could actually be.

“It’d take about a day to walk around the entire thing.” Gon said over his shoulder.

Killua stood in awe, staring at where the tree faded into the sky.

“Come on, you’re going up first.” Gon continued.

KIllua snapped his head down to Gon.

“What?”

He realized his his mistake as soon as he made it.

He clapped his hand over his mouth.

Gon looked up at the tree, running his hand along it.

“Come on.” He said, moving aside and motioning to the tree.

Killua move forward, hesitantly wrapping a hand around a ridge in the bark.

He gave it a test tug and it held fast.

He experimentally lifted a foot to put it on a lower bump in the tree’s bark.

He pushed up from this bump, catching his hand in a crack in tree.

From that crack in the tree, He lifted his other foot off the ground and onto the bark.

Killua focused meticulously on the placement of his limbs and weight.

That didn’t mean he didn’t have brainpower to worry about how far up they were going, whether he was going too slow, what Gon thought of his climbing and a hundred other fears.

That just meant that he was stressed out even more.

Ten horrific, agonizing minutes passed.

Killua’s body felt like it was burning from the inside out.

The sun was nearly gone and the wind was picking up.

Killua felt something grab his shoe.

He kicked desperately away and looked down.


	23. 20

Oh god they were really far up.

Oh god.

Killua screwed his eyes shut and pulled tighter to the tree.

he heard a shout from just below.

“Killua!” 

“What!?” He yelled back

“Killua!” Gon was having trouble keeping the amusement from his voice. “Killua, we need to go to the right!”

“Fuck you!” was all Killua could say.

He could swear he heard giggling over the wind.

He kept his vice-like grip on the tree and he kept his eyes screwed shut.

A few moments later, he felt something tough wrap gently around the back of his hand.

He opened his eyes.

The last slivers of sunlight were disappearing from behind Gon.

He was smiling.

Not his usual, joyous ear to ear smile, but a gentler, smaller smile.

“Come on Killua.”

Killua’s heart felt like a cage of butterflies, full to bursting.

He nodded.


	24. 21

It turned out that Gon was leading him to a knothole the size of his old house.

Killua had lived in a very large house.

Killua was lagging behind, gazing up at the roof of the wooden cave Gon had led him to.

He was absolutely stunned.

“What are they?” He said breathily.

Gon looked up to knothole ceiling and observed the glowing, starlike dots spotted across it.

“Bugs.” He answered. “If you look carefully, you can see them moving.”

He looked to over to see Killua’s reaction.

The human was still standing and looking up at them, completely awestruck.

Gon smiled at him.

“They’re about the size of your head.” he continued.

Killua did a strange thing to respond.

He shivered without turning his head away.

“Seriously? Why does everything have to be scary and beautiful at the same time?”

He craned to look over at Gon, and his cheeks suddenly flushed.

“W-what?”

Gon cocked his head to respond.

“You were… staring at me.” Said Killua, now unsure.

“Oh.” Said Gon, still staring. “Sorry.”

Killua shook his head slowly.

“Don’t… be.” He said, staring back.

Gon swallowed.

“So what… what happens now?” Asked Killua, unsure of how he meant it.

Gon was the first to break the red velvet tension coating the both of them.

“Come on, there’s a little shack not too far further.” breaking eye contact and walking farther into the massive knothole.

Killua followed.


	25. 22

“Little” and “shack” were both keen descriptors for what Gon was leading KIllua to stay the night in.

It was about three and a half uneven, wooden walls with a fifth poorly cut slab of cedar on top.

It was about the size of two outhouses put together.

There was one room, entirely dominated by the bed.

As Killua lay on the bed, he decided that this the most comfortable piece of furniture he’d ever touched, and that this glorified pile of planks the coziest building he’d ever been in.

He collapsed onto the bed, closed his eyes and met with oblivion.


	26. Killua's Nightmare

Killua slept for many hours, dreaming of nothing at all.

The shift from nothing to nightmare was subtle at first.

He felt an uncomfortable warmth spread over him.

Then into him.

He shuffled, unable to move.

Things weren’t right, he couldn’t feel his toes.

The darkness all started to blur together, mashing into a deep red blob.

The blobbed jiggled peaceful for a moment.

The inside of his skin was near to boiling.

He felt like a kettle.

The the dark red blob looked cool and inviting.

Killua reached for it.

It shrieked.

Killua pressed a hand onto it.

A dozen shrieked.

Killua pressed his hand into it.

It’s shrieks became feral.

His hand was cool.

Killua jumped awake in a cold sweat.


	27. Gon's contest

Gon held a rock in one hand.

He dragged the rock down the wall of the knothole, carving a line into it.

He tossed the rock to his other hand and drew another mark along the wall.

Thus far, Gon’s internal debate had raged something like this:

 

Killua is beautiful            Humans die

 

Gon tapped his finger on his chin, before making two more marks on the first side.

His internal contest looked like this so far:

 

Killua is beautiful            Humans die

 

Killua is favored  
by the moon

 

I get to hear about  
the outside

 

Even with three points on one side, Gon was having trouble outweighing the other point.

He put his thumb to his chin and puzzled.

Gon heard a sudden, somewhat distant chirping.

He looked towards the sound, spotting in the night’s sky a small blue speck.

The small blue spec fluttered and dipped towards Gon.

Gon held his finger out as a perch.

The tiny blue bird fluttered down and landed on his finger, wrapping it’s claws around his finger.

It took a quicked, jutting turn to to the shack, then back to Gon.

Not again. It whispered. Not like last time.

Gon nodded, and bowed his head to give it permission to leave.

It fell asleep on his finger.

Gon chewed his lip and half squatted down onto the floor.

The bugs along the ceiling crawled.


	28. 23

Killua could not express why his dream was so uncomfortable.

It worked in such vague concepts and actions and descriptions that he had trouble explaining to himself why he was afraid to close his eyes.

He stared at the wooden rectangle above him for a few moments.

Killua gripped the spear for comfort.

He blinked once and felt the reddish goo and painful warmth returned.

Killua held onto the spear and rolled from bed.

He tried to wiggle outside through the half wall at the foot of the bed.

Once out in the cold, late night air Killua rolled his shoulders and tried to twist the krink from his back.

He could see Gon, a little farther away, sitting at the mouth of the knothole, staring up at the sky.

Killua slowly approached him, then sat down next to him.

Gon looked over, sleeping blue bird on his finger.

Killua gave him a brief, flimsy smile before Gon turned back to the sky.

“Why are you trying to kill me?” Gon asked.

Killua leaned back into his palms.

It’d taken Gon quite some time to work around to the most obvious question he could ask.

In the end, that had probably worked to his advantage.

Before, Killua would have lied, consequences be damned.

But now?

Now he’d never had a closer friend.

Murder aside.

“You asked me before about my family.” Killua’s words sounded unsure, even to himself.

“I told you about my older brothers, my younger sisters, my mother, my father…”

Killua swallowed.

“I didn’t tell you what happened to them.”

Gon looked to him, something weighted and painful in his eyes.

“Money.” Killua said finally. “I’m killing you for money.”

Gon swallowed, his throat dry and papery.

“But why…” He stopped. He was pushing too hard, Killua would clam up.

“To escape. Alluka and I would talk for hours about a place she’d heard of, the shimmering coast.”

Killua shook his head.

“I should’ve know it was bullshit. She didn’t jack about the world, locked up all day.”

He looked back up to the stars.

The moon.

“But it made her happy, so I wanted to find it too.”

Killua realized with nervousness that Gon had been silent for sometime.

He looked over to the other boy.

He was biting his lip, face tear stained and snot covered.

He sniffed, then leaped at Killua in a hug.

“Killua! I’m sorry! Killua, I’m sorry! KILLLLUUUAAA!” He bawled

“Oi! Stop it! Get off!”

Killua shoved Gon’s wet face and wailed in distress.

Far below, a small, sleepy blue bird flew into the forest to tell them their spirit was crying for a human again.


	29. 24

When the morning came, the pair clambered back down the tree.

“Come on, I want to show you something” Gon said.

Killua just nodded.

His stomach grumbled.

Gon chuckled at him.

“There’ll be food where we’re going.” he said over his shoulder.

Killua quickened his pace.

 

The two arrived at… the heart of the forest.

“But wait, didn’t we just come from the heart of the forest?” asked Killua.

Gon nodded over his shoulder.

“Then how…?”

Gon pushed apart the foliage to reveal a sparkling green meadow.

“Things can have more than one heart.” He said looking back and basking in Killua’s amazed expression.

Killua walked in front of him and out into the field, gazing at the truly stunning array of plants.

The rainbow of greenery was truly jaw dropping.

Killua stood in awe of the gentle breeze shaking the plant life, and the tree in center of the field with it’s own rainbow.

“What grows on that tree?” Killua asked, pointing at the dozens of colors and shapes hanging from it’s branches.

“Fruit” Gon answered helpfully.

Killua rolled his eyes as Gon walked past him towards the tree.

At the center of the circle where the tree stood, Gon reached up and plucked a fruit from branch, passing it gently to Killua.

Killua looked skeptically from the sickly green, rounded fruit to Gon.

Gon smiled widely before picking another fruit (this one tube-shaped and a sharp brown) and taking a cautionless bite from it.

After Gon smiled at him again (this time with a mouth full of seeds), Killua shrugged and took his own bite.

Killua’s fruit tasted almost… smokey?

It was a harder, warmer taste than he thought could be put in a fruit.

It was not at all unpleasant.

He smiled back at Gon.


	30. 25

After the pair had eaten their fill, Gon set about crafting his surprise.

Gon had made Killua pinky promise not to look.

He rolled his eyes but acquiesced.

Killua decided the best way to avoid spoiling Gon’s surprise was to lay up against the tree and… rest his eyes.

He was afraid of his nightmare returning, but knowing that Gon was close by reassured him more than he expected.

His sleep was swift and this time, truly dreamless.


	31. 26

Killua jumped awake, spear at the ready.

The roar that’d woken him was still in the air, deafening and distant.

He turned towards where he thought it originated.

There on, the edge of the field was a small mob of maybe two dozen animals, crowded into a tiny circle.

If he jumped into the air he could start to see the shape of a spiky haired figure in the center, nodding and bowing frantically.

After several minutes of these bobbing nods and bows, the animals began to wander away, off into different sections of the forest.

A large brown bear lumbered past Killua.

It stopped and sniffed at him briefly before growling.

Killua sneered back.

It seemed to do the closest a bear can manage to a “harumph” before wandering off into the forest.

Eventually, when all the animals had yelled at Gon, Killua started to wade through the grass towards Gon.

He was sitting in a heap at the center of the circle of trampled grass.

Gon’s face bent by exhaustion was not something Killua wanted to see ever again.

“Hey” Said Gon

“Hey” Said Killua

They quiet for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Asked Killua.

“No” Said Gon.

They were quiet again.

Killua sat down in the grass next to Gon.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he said.

“No.” Said Gon.

“Ok.” said Killua.

And they didn’t.


	32. 27

At least, for a little.

“Do you know how many things died for them to meet me?”

Killua looked over to Gon.

The other boy had spoken quietly.

Killua just shook his head.

“Twelve. Two field mice, three spiders, a cricket, a squirrel, two birds and three chipmunks.”

Gon dragged an arm under his nose.

“Most just got trampled underfoot or eaten.”

Killua knew better than to say it didn’t matter.

Gon cared too much for that.

“What was it about?” Killua asked instead.

Gon shrugged without looking at him.

“You.”

Killua was somewhat surprised.

“what about-”

“You aren’t the first human I’ve taken here.” Gon interrupted. “You know that right?

Killua swallowed and shook his head.

Gon chuckled.

“I suppose you wouldn’t. The last human I took here was named Mito.”

Gon took a deep breath.

“She was a kind motherless woman who looked after me like her own.”

Gon shook his head.

“And then, a few decades passed and she withered away.”

The spirit’s face soured.

“I don’t even know why she tried to raise me. I am so much older.”

Killua shivered.

Gon had never sounded so… cold before.

He wasn’t stopping.

“And then when she died, I gave up. I abandoned by duties. Christening of newborns, balancing the predators and prey. All of it.”

Something malevolent was stirring in Gon’s eyes.

“The wolves gorged themselves and then starved. The deer were chased nearly to extinction. The forest’s plants were so choked with life they strangled each other.”

Gon didn’t seem to be standing up as much as growing from the ground.

“By the time I realised by mistake, the forest was nearly completely dead.”

Gon turned to Killua.

“And that brings us to you. The person who might have me repeat my mistake.”

Gon towered over him.

“With your toy” As Gon said this, he seized Killua’s spear from him.

“You thought you could kill me?” the previously sealed cut along Gon’s cheek had reopened and was bleeding furiously.

“I… I…” was all Killua could say.

Gon seized Killua by the neck, nearly lifting his feet from the ground.

“You still reek of death, even in a place like this.”

He cocked his head to the side, eyes animal like and empty.

“What have you done? What is your sin?”

Gon head continued to twist.

“Who did you kill? Why? Was it your sister?”

Killua heard a brief, sharp cracking noise as Gon’s head continued to turn.

“Did you murder the sister that you loved so much? Why?”

Gon’s head had now turned 180 degrees, his neck contorted and snapped above his chin.

“Why?”


	33. 28

Gon had been hit before.

Hundreds of ways, hundreds of times.

He’d been hit by a boar ramming into him, he’d been hit by a deer’s kick, and he’d even been struck by lightning once.

(He deserved it)

And when Killua punched him, he would have happily traded place with any of those.

Killua’s blow made him feel like an inanimate object that’d been knocked over.

His entire body went limp and he fell into the dirt as a pained heap of flesh.

The buzzing in his ears nearly drowned out Killua shrieking into them.

“I DIDN’T KILL HER YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Gon was dimly aware that Killua was kicking him repeated with all his might, but his vision was starting to blur into blackness and he really couldn’t be bothered…


	34. Gon's dream

Gon dreamed of white clouds on black sky.

A pale figure, the details of which were impossible to make out.

Beckoning from atop the clouds.

Bring him to me.

Gon nodded and kneeled (When had he started standing?)

Bring him to me and wake up.

Wake up Gon.

**Wake up.**


	35. 29

Gon jumped awake.

Killua jumped back, spear at the ready.

Gon groaned in pain and laid back down.

After a few minutes of gentle breathing, Gon tried talking.

“Sorry.” he managed.

Killua didn’t say anything, but he relaxed a little.

After a few more moments of gentle breathing, Killua scowled.

“I didn’t fucking kill her.”

Gon tried to nod but it really really hurt.

“Yeah” he croaked.

Killua was still scowling at him.

“At worst it was my fault.” he continued.

“What-” Gon managed to croak before being kicked again.

He decided to grunt in pain instead.

“Shut up.” Said the boy standing over him.

Gon gave a pained nod.

After a few moments of silence Killua spoke again.

“I told you my family was comprised of killers. That’s the reason it happened. One of my father’s jobs went bad, his target wanted revenge, and they set our house on fire.”

Killua swallowed.

“The whole place went up like brushwood. My sister and I were trapped in the rooms next to each other.”

Killua had a far away smile spread across his face.

“We used to chatter through the walls for hours. I think we were talking about old maid while the house burned.”

Killua’s short lived smile shrunk into an unconscious sneer.

“Then dear old father kicked in the door to rescue me. And not her. I was barely conscious, but I still screamed at him to go back from her.”

Killua let out chuckle that wasn’t in the least humorous.

“He told me she wasn’t as important.”

“Killua-” Gon cracked.

Killua kicked him again, then collapsed onto the ground next to him, laying with his head near Gon's bare feet.

“We watched the house burn down from a nearby hill. Did you know cooked flesh smells weirdly sweet?”

Gon nodded.

“When it was nothing but cooled ashes, father finally let go of my wrist.” Killua continued. “My sisters, my brothers, my mother, all...”

Killua smeared the tears from his eyes.

“Me and dad yelled back and forth for a while about if it was worth it and how I was the heir and all that garbage. It didn’t make me feel any better.”

Killua paused and breathed, trying to avoid any breaks in his voice.

“I found alluka wrapped around the spear, cooked to cinder.”

Killua swallowed.

“She died on her bed.”


	36. 30

Killua left several hours later.

Gon’s freakish interrogation and Killua’s emotionally weighted confession both pushed him away.

That night, Gon apologized to the moon.


	37. 31

Killua came back several years later.

He was several years taller.

Several years stronger.

Gon was waiting at the forest’s edge.

“Hello” He said.

“Hello” Killua said.

Neither of them said anything for a little.

“The world has changed.” Said Killua.

Gon cocked his head to side.

“Years passed outside the forest in what was days.” Killua continued.

Gon nodded.

“Time passes differently in the heart of the forest.” He explained.

“Oh.” Said Killua.

Gon nodded again.

“Come on” He said.

Killua followed him.


	38. 32

From the top of the tallest tree in the world, Killua craned to look at the moon.

He wrung his hands nervously.

“Um, Ma’am?”


	39. Epilogue

Gon squatted down, gently caressing a mushroom into growth.

The sun was setting.

Killua would be here soon.

The forest had become a gentler place to the night.

It was filled with fireflies in the summer, and all throughout the spring grew hundreds of gently green glowing mushrooms.

The forest was just in between the two, where the secondary stars buzzed around the sky and the forest floor began to blossom into a soft emerald light show.

 

Gon sat patiently cross legged at the base of his favorite tree, bobbing back forth.

The sun was setting.

Killua would be here soon.


End file.
